What 'Immortals' Director Tarsem Singh Really Wants to Do: Direct a 'Samurai Jack' Movie

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Tarsem Singh is the director behind Relativity’s new Greek god epic Immortals and next year's Lily Collins-Julia Roberts Snow White movie, Mirror, Mirror. What will he do next? At the Monday premiere of Immortals, Singh revealed his secret wish: to helm a live-action version of Samurai Jack.

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Jack was an edgy and hyperactive animated show created by Genndy Tartakovsky that ran for three seasons on the Cartoon Network starting in 2001. It centered on a warrior from feudal Japan banished into the future by a shape-changing demon, with the warrior battling aliens and robots as he tries to find a way back. The show was known for its varied art styles, the use of split screens and multi-angles, and for long sequences that were dialogue free, all of which contributed to it winning four Emmys.

Singh told The Hollywood Reporter he has little interest in comic book movies but “I love Samurai Jack. I would love to direct that.” He said it’s the epic style, pace and art that he admires.

“It’s brilliant. The speed, it embraces where it comes from. I find that comic strip films are halfway grounded. They don’t play my chord. But I love Samurai Jack. I love the animation," he said.

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A live-action version of Jack was actually set up at New Line in the early 2000s, with man-in-the-news Brett Ratner attached to direct and produce, but the rights have since reverted back to Cartoon Network.

“Have them contact me,” Singh said. You hear that, CN execs?

For his follow-up to Mirror, Mirror, however, Singh will probably to do a movie that rejects the visually intense nature of the films that so far have made his reputation.

“I want to do a talking-head movie like My Dinner with Andre or like an early (Roman) Polanski like Knife in the Water. I want to go there because now all everyone wants to think is that I want to do visual films," he explained

One reason he took on the Snow White movie was that it was a family adventure, a departure from the blood-spslattered and hard-R nature of Immortals. “Now the next thing to do is a movie that doesn’t have the spectacular in it,” he said, even though he thinks switching genres will only lead to a pay cut.

“When you do something that they think is in your style, people will write a big check for you, and if it’s not your style, they’ll go, ‘Oh, no, he might sink us’ and cut your rate. But if you don’t change it up early in your career and force people to redefine how they see you, when will you?”

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit